A GLIMPSE OF THE TO’ – Woozy and New Lands Winter 2012

This past December, Woozy and New Lands took to the road for a series of shows they dubbed the “We’ll Have a Blue Christmas With or Without You Tour.” The tour kicked off in NOLA at the Big Top, and proceeded with a journey across Texas, including a stop at DIY extravaganza Juicefest. Upon their arrival back in New Orleans, we had a chance to talk with Kara Stafford and Ian Paine-Jesam (of Woozy) as well as Josh Campbell and Will Hagan (of New Lands) to hear about the finer moments of their dead-of-winter trek across the great South.

This was the first tour for both Woozy and New Lands. What was the best part of taking your bands out on the road for the first time together? Do you love each other more or less now?

IP-J: I think I can safely say that I am now one of New Lands’ biggest fans. I even got to play the sleigh bells for them when they played their Christmas song on the tour. So, I guess I am in New Lands now as their permanent sleigh bell player.

KS: The best part of our simultaneous first voyage was feeling like a traveling party (or after-party, depending on the time of day). That, or that the gang was so big and bad that big, bad Texas seemed less big and bad.

JC: Going on tour with Woozy was great. It seemed a perfect fit for us on several levels–we are both newer bands, we both write sad songs, and we probably wouldn’t have gone on tour if Woozy hadn’t asked us to. Post-tour, I feel like I’m a part of Woozy. I feel so fortunate to have been able to travel with friends to play and hear music on a daily basis–this is the best part of a shared tour in my mind.

Any new favorite band that you guys played with or saw while on tour?

KS: The general consensus seems to be Innards. I really liked Father Figure too.

JC: Innards.

Both bands played sets at an event called Juicefest in Baytown, TX. What is Juicefest? What was your experience with playing at Juicefest? What role, if any, does juice play in Juicefest?

IP-J: Juicefest was kind of like a small DIY festival for all ages. There were a lot of cool bands playing, including Moths, Innards, and our buddies in Glish. Juicefest was an interesting experience, we had a lot of down time so we watched some Beavis and Butthead, and sat in the grass eating BBQ and drinking Shasta. Maybe the Shasta was the juice in Juicefest.

KS: Juicefest is like purgatory, but with slightly more hardcore bands. I think maybe it’s Juicefest because, man, are high schoolers juiced on some hardcore.

JC: It was put together by Grant Law in Baytown in a building which we learned used to house a radio station. It was an all day event with a lot of bands. I mean a lot of bands. Woozy played at 4:20 PM and ruled hard, and we played later in the night. There was, in fact, a dearth of juice at Juicefest.

WH: The only hiccup involved two 14 year old girls who were trying to hold our merch for ransom until we paid them for watching it. End of story was that we didn’t and then we played one of the angriest sets of the tour.

Tour jams — for those long long drives. What were yours?

IP-J: Cursive, Elliott Smith, Silversun Pickups, just to name a few. Oh and course Pedro the Lion, we listened to that about four times.

KS: Pedro The Lion’s album “Control” is essentially Woozy’s life motto in audio form.

JC: For New Lands I would say the most common tunes were Toe, Ape Up!, Apollo Brown, and The Six Parts Seven.

WH: Three words: Reel Big Fish. We found it in Rob’s CD case. We also listened to Enema of the State, in which Casey sang along to the entire album. Rob joined in too.

About Chinquapin

Chinquapin Records is a cooperative of artists and advocates formed late 2010 in New Orleans, LA. Though the name is still young, the community that it represents has been sharing and caring since we first fell in love with each other's music.
Chinquapin Records seeks to be an outlet for sharing the music we make and the music we love.